The nominees for this year’s first fandom hall of fame have been announced by Joan Marie Knappenberger. The award is presented for contributions to the field of science fiction dating back more than 30 years. The Sam Moskowitz Award is presented for excellence in science fiction collecting.

Scientist R.C.W. Ettinger (b.1918) died on July 23. Ettinger is best known as one of the pioneers of the cryonics movement and founded the Cryonics Institute in 1976. His body is the 106th body frozen by the institute. Ettinger was injured during World War II and came up with some of his ideas during his long recuperation and his love of science fiction. Ettinger also published two science fiction stories in 1948 and 1950.

Japanese author Sakyo Komatsu (b.1931) died on July 26. Komatsu is considered to have been one of the big three Japanese science fiction authors. His novel Nihon Chinbotsu was published in the United States as Japan Sinks. Komatsu was honored as one of the Guests of Honor at Nippon 2007, the 65th World Science Fiction Convention.

The Herschel spacecraft, launched by the European Space Agency, has determined that water in the upper atmosphere of Saturn comes from the moon Enceladus, which orbits approximately 238,000 km from the planet. Enceladus spews water into space at a rate of 250kg/s. Scientists estimate that between 3-5% of that is captured by Saturn, which is enough to account for the levels of water found in Saturn’s atmosphere.

Astronomers have discovered the first asteroid to orbit in the leading Lagrange point of the Earth. 2010 TK7 is nearly 300m across and has an irregular orbit which can bring it within 20 million kilometers of the Earth. The asteroid was discovered by the Near Earth Orbit project using the WISE satellite, launched in 2009.

Chinese paleontologists have announced a study which determined that archaeopteryx was a dinosaur rather than a bird, contrary to the understanding of the creature’s role in evolution since its discovery in 1861. Rather then being the earliest known bird, scientists believe the archaeopteryx was a feathered dinosaur of the deinonychosaur group, which includes velociraptors. In recent years, many of the avian features found in archaeopteryx have also been found in non-avian dinosaurs.

The James White Award is currently open to submissions of original stories by non-professional authors. The deadline for this year’s competition is midnight on 31 January 2012. The winner will be announced at the BSFA Award Ceremony at Eastercon 2012. The winning author will receive £200 plus publication in Interzone. Visit for more information. This year’s judges include Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Juliet E. McKenna, and Andy Cox.

Publisher Philip Rahman (b.1952) died on July 23. In 1989, Rahman, along with college friend Dennis Weiler, founded Fedogan & Bremer in order to publish a collection by Charles Wandrei which had been announced by Arkham House in the 1960s and never published. The company went on to publish numerous Lovecraftian style books and in 1996 began a line of mystery publishing. The company won a World Fantasy Award, Special Award – Non-Professional in 1996.

Images from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter may show the crash site of the Lunar Orbiter 2, which helped map potential landing sites for Apollo missions in 1967. After completing its mission, NASA instructed the LO2 to crash into the farside of the moon, although the exact location of its crash was unknown. The LRO was launched in 2009 to fully map the lunar surface and create 3D maps for a potential return to the moon. The LRO has previously mapped all six Apollo landing sites and has found evidence of volcanism on the moon.